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L PARENTS AND TEACHERS. 

/}■ ' " How shall these expanding faculties be directed ? '^ 






BOSTON: 

JOSEPH DOWE, 22 COURT STREET. 
^ MDC.CCXLI. ., , . . , 



I n 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1841, by 

Joseph Dowe. 
in the clerk's office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



J. G, Torrey, printer, W Devonshire street. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The object of this little book is the im- 
provement of home education^ the elevation 
of thought at our own firesides. Until 
this is effected, a deadly indifference will 
continue to chill every effort to extend ed- 
ucation, and a cold contempt will still wither 
the aspirations of those who would cheer- 
fully devote themselves to the important 
duties of the school. 

It is a reprint of a little work publish- 
ed in London, entitled ^^ Three Hun- 
dred Maxims on Education, for the Con- 
sideration of Parents.'' By J. P. Greaves. 
And '' Thoughts addressed to the Mother, on 
the Education of her Child." By Francis 
Wilby, of London. 



IV ADVERTISEMENT. 

To these is added a short Essay on the 
Doctrine and Disciphne of Human Culture, 
which has also appeared in print; each of 
which, it is believed, will commend itself 
to the earnest study of all who would pre- 
serve the innocency and integrity of child- 
hood, and promote its growth in the graces 
of wisdom and piety. 

Boston^ June 10, 1841. 



TO MOTHERS. 



Most powerful is the divine Instinct that 
rushes Uke a spring-tide into a Mother's 
bosom (a tide that has no reflux) on the 
birth of her off'spring ! As a mother my- 
self, and therefore selected to write this ad- 
dress to yoUj well do I recollect the over- 
whelming tenderness that poured into my 
own, on hearing the first feeble cry of my 
new-born infant, and the fervent but in- 
audible prayer I breathed, even in the 
midst of my own sufferings, for the welfare 
of that child, which had as yet never been 
gazed upon by a Mother's eye ! 

Would that this little book might accom- 
pany such, and every precious deposit of a 
human being fresh from the hands of its 
Creator ! That it might be placed upon 
the cradle of your little one^ even at the 
moment of its birth ; and that the Thoughts 
1* 



VI TO MOTHERS. 

it contains might awaken in yon, even at 
that time when your own instincts are equal- 
ly as pure^ a due sense of the vast impor- 
tance of the maternal character, the great 
responsibihty of the ofRce, and, at the same 
time, teach you how to perform those sa- 
cred duties you have taken ^upon yourself, 
aright. 

The brute creation have, these maternal 
instincts as well as you ; without them 
what would become of the helpless, inex- 
perienced beings just brought into the 
world ? But as the reason of the human 
animal is far superior to that of beasts, and 
birds, and insects, so ought to be their in- 
stincts also : — As the new born babe is en- 
dowed with an immortal spirit^ ought not 
the Mother of such gifted being to enquire, 
impelled by the same instinct that would 
seek to supply every temporal want of the 
little stranger, what would be the most ad- 
vantageous for its eternal one ? 

Institutions may be formed for the im- 
provement of the moral character of man. 



TO MOTHERS. VU 

Philanthropists may plan schemes, and rich 
endowments may be bestowed for the same 
benevolent purpose ; but all and every- 
thing that nfian himself can propose, or ex- 
ecute, is but as a '' feather in the balance" 
to what ivoman in her maternal relation 
can herself perform, for to her is exclusive- 
ly entrusted the child, not only to attend to 
its physical wants, but the whole treasury 
of its mental energies and its spiritual de- 
velopments for the first few years. The 
mind can grow awry as well as the body ; 
the spirit can receive a wrong bias, and 
work out its own wretchedness : it is the 
mother's province and her privilege, entrust- 
ed to her by the Deity, to ^' train up a child 
in the way he should go, and when he is 
old, he will not depart from it." 

And shall the virtuous and intelligent 
Mother shrink from such high appointment, 
and be led away by the influence of an artifi- 
cial and unhealthy state of society, to fritter 
away those early years in her child's exis- 
tence, that are consigned to her guidaijce 



VIU TO MOTHERS. 

and control, suffering its mind to become 
perverted, its spirit degraded, whilst she is 
amusing herself in fashionable levities, or 
unnecessary pursuits, wholly regardless of 
the sacred trust committed to her charge, 
except as regards the merely animal wants, 
and exterior appearance of her offspring ? 
Nor is it enough to cultivate the intellect 
alone ; then would she resemble the florist, 
who, in seeking to make the plant, put 
forth large and double blossoms^ to make it 
outwardly beautiful, prevents its bearing 
seedj and thus renders it a useless one. 

And shall you be exempt, ye Fathers, 
from sharing in the delightful task of train- 
ing up a young angel to do its Maker's 
will ? thus turning this earth, its dwelling- 
place, into the bowers of a celestial paradise? 
For Heaven is that in which God resides 
in all His fulness ! 

Fathers ! perform your duty to your 
children, for, are you not the stewards of 
your divine Master ? and has He not en- 
trusted to your care part of His own Fam- 



TO MOTHERS. IX 

ily? — tlm Lambs of His Foldl ^'Destroy 
not, by your example, the precepts of your 
own mouth." Remem.ber that every action 
of yours done in the presence of your rea- 
soning infant, will either assist in the 
growth, or the blight of the divine Germ 
within that infant's heart. Assist in the 
good work that the Mother of your Child is 
doing for its benefit, and may God give the 
increase ! 

In placing these Thoughts in the hands of 
both Parents, (but to the Mother more es- 
pecially, as having the j^r^^ teaching of her 
child committed solely to her care and 
Love,) I strongly recommend them to their 
serious study. Many of them are as pre- 
cious kernels, of which the shells must be 
broken before they can be obtained to ad- 
vantage. They are not cold systematic 
rules, reasoning, derived from the experi- 
ence of colleges and Institutions — new- 
fangled notions, that, having no Truth for 
their basis, will soon perish and fall away 
— but possessing in themselves the evidence 



X TO MOTHERS. 

of the Author of all Truth, being the only- 
Teacher that can impart Lessons of any- 
worth to either parent or child! I do trust 
that they may not lightly be put by as un- 
intelligible, or obscure aphorisms ; for the 
Doctrines of true Religion are as much a 
science as those of Philosophy or Astrono- 
my, and cannot be learned without care, 
application, and patience. That His Ho- 
ly Spirit may enhghten your minds, so 
that you may perceive their immense val- 
ue, and give you the moral courage, to act 
according to their divine precepts, is the 
ardent desire of one who is herself 

A MOTHER. 



PREFACE TO THE LONDON EDITION. 



The intention in publishing this little book of Thoughts 
is simply to point the Mother's love to that primitive 
love source in her own being, to which she is by them 
instructed to apply, that she may obtain that power need- 
ed for the due performance of her duties towards her 
children, and which power she is called upon to awaken 
in them, as the only efficient cause of a universal devel- 
opment of the human faculties. The Mother stands to 
her child in the same relation as its God ; it looks to her 
in whom all its happiness centres, as its fountain for ev- 
ery supply of help, of defence, and of comfort ; supported 
by its Mother's arms, supplied by its Mother's breast, and 
cheered by its Mother's smiles, it feels no fear, it knows 
no want. In this sacred relation therefore, how intense- 
ly important is it, that she secure and transmit to her 
babe these supplies in the purity of their primitive es- 
sence ; for every aberration from this, fills with moral 
poison the child's vitals, which poison, rankling in its 
deepest nature, will embitter every stage of its future 
experience. 

From a deep inward consciousness of the creative love- 
source within, arises a correspondent affection to all its 
family, which spirit, as a living ocean, seeks to pour its 
vital flood into all its tributary rivers, and to insinuate it- 
self into its remotest rivulets, hence the ideas represented 
in the Thoughts now brought to the assistance of Mothers. 
The difficulty of expressing these ideas in suitable lan- 
guage is deeply felt ; the hackneyed phraseology in 
which important things are often put, is found by general 
readers to be so familiar as almost to be void of meaning : 
they attach not a single idea to them ; no inward sensa- 
tion is awakened, nor any good result whatever obtain- 



Xll PREFACE. 

ed, but, on the contrary, a wasteful expenditure of time 
and talent, which, if rightly employed, would be produc- 
tive of permanent good. I ha^e, therefore, not confined 
myself to the common mode of expression, but have used 
such as appears to me calculated to awaken internal con- 
sciousness, which generates thought, and corresponding 
energies. Some form of words must necessarily be used 
to express ideas, and I have done my best to use such as 
appear suited to that end. The encouraging considera- 
tion, however, that the Mother's feelings will be the best 
proof of the truth of these Thoughts, and that she will 
find the interpreter of them in her own bosom, affords 
me unshaken confidence that this little work will not be 
in vain. The trutli of the subject is also confirmed by 
the whole tenor of scripture, in which the maternal in- 
fluence is represented as the strongest relation in nature ; 
and, therefore, is required to be most pure and wise in 
its application ; and here I may be allowed to hint, that 
the purity of its influence should commence long before 
the actual birth of the child. The failure of all attempts 
to facilitate early development, arises from not recog- 
nizing the cause which originates the moral and physical 
deformation of the human being. This, however, may 
become the subject of another essay, for although not ir- 
relevant to the present, it is far too important to be treat- 
ed on in so short a preface. The desire awakened in the 
present day for a superior moral culture, is a favorable 
indication that better things are near, and that ere long 
the loving Mother will become the only preceptress to 
her own offspring, until it arrives at an age to be commit- 
ted for the more extended development of its powers, to 
,, such teachers as are by inward tuition, and outward ex- 
perience, fitted for the important and interesting work of 
instructing youth for the divine end. 



THOUGHTS 

FOR THE 

CONSIDERATION OF PARENTS. 



Mother ! The maternal instinct in yoUj 
is the representative of divine paternal love 
to your child. 

If your love for your child be a physical 
attachment only, the physical wants and 
physical powers of your child will only 
appear to your attachment. 

If your love for your child be a false 
spiritual affection, not grounded on divine 
love, the false spiritual wants of your child 
and false spiritual powers will only appear 
to your affection. 

If your love to your child be Godly love, 
the holy wants and the holy powers of 
2 



14 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

your child will manifest themselves to your 
love. 

Father ! the paternal instinct in you, is 
the representative of divine justice to your 
child. 

If your justice to your child be a physical 
force, slavish obedience and capricious 
resistance will be the result from your 
child to you. 

If your justice to your child be a false 
spiritual command, a false spiritual obedi- 
ence and a hypocritical acknowledgement 
will be the results. 

If your justice to your child be a Godly 
justice, a true obedience and a holy love 
will be the results. 

Never forget that your child is physical, 
moral, and divine; not your own, but 
God's. 

Let the child be taught to feel that its 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 15 

moral being is higher than its physical ex- 
istence. 

Never venture to determine what your 
child shall become, but by the inner deter- 
mination find out God who is determining 
it. 

Let the child arrive by degrees to the con- 
sciousnesSj and to the free use of his phys- 
ical, moral, and divine capacities, and there- 
by find out how its interior vocation is re- 
lated to love. 

Let the child's exterior vocation be cor- 
responding to its interior vocation, or else it 
will not be able to receive the love fulfil- 
ment. 

Next to the vocation, which you have to 
the source, the child's vocation to the source 
is the most important and the most obliga- 
tory. 

By education try to elevate your child 



16 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

to that which, by religion, you are trying 
to elevate yourself. 

If you have not been educated, nor have 
educated yourself for a divine end, try to 
get this done, at least, for your child. 

It is impossible that a corrupt generation 
should generate a better one, without puri- 
fying itself 

But it is possible that the fear of rendering 
the following generation equally corrupt, 
might induce the present to seek the divine 
aid necessary thereto. 

To educate your child for God, you 
most dedicate yourself like a child to God, 

It is not by forcing the child's nature in- 
to the form of your nature that you will 
yourself acquire childlike simplicity, but 
by giving up self to the divine nature. 

Never behave childishly to a child, but 
treat the child with a childlike heart. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 17 

Let not the child study your doings but 
study the child's doings with respect to the 
inner mover. 

Never be a bad example to your child, 
but do not on this account think that you, 
or your doings are a good example for your 
child. 

Never behave yourself in the presence of 
your child so, as you would not allow your 
child to behave before you. 

Never let your child see you act differ- 
ently from what you say : to accomplish 
this, you must attend more to your actions, 
and use less words. 

It is not enough to hide your imperfec- 
tions before your child : you must endeav- 
our to avoid their influencing your conduct ; 
when you have not done so, avow them 
freely, but with regret. 

But, in order to do this sincerely, you 
2* 



18 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

must endeavour to get rid of those imper- 
fections, which you cannot avow, without 
losing your own dignity in your child's 
eye. 

God has deposited in the heart of your 
child a germ of his everlasting word, by 
which the whole universe was created, on 
which all spiritual being as well as all phys- 
ical existence immediately depends. 

Love is the foundation of your child's 
knowledge, be it divine, be it moral, or be it 
physical. 

The spirit within the child establishes 
the passive relation between its physical, 
its moral, and its divine natures, and de- 
termines the active relation in which it 
shall stand to outward nature, to society, 
and to mankind. 

The child sees life and action in the 
whole of nature, and this is not a dream of 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 19 

childishness, but the consciousness of the 
i7^-forming spirit. 

The child has love and confidence in 
every human being, and this is not an er- 
ror of inexperiencCj but is engendered by 
the divine germ as a sympathetic feeling. 

The child has a deep and solemn feeling 
of the presence of an infinite love and pow- 
er, and this is not a blind imitation of the 
veneration it observes in others^ but a di- 
vinely generated consciousness in itself. 

To enable your child to act well out- 
wardly, present it first to the spirit, who 
will act upon it inwardly. 

In order that your child may be able to 
act eflaciently, according to the will of God, 
you must let the will of God work essen- 
tially in the child's will. 

Let your child constantly inform you, and 
itself, what it is, what it does, and what it 
experiences. 



20 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

To let your child use its own true spirit- 
ual sight, you must not allow any exterior 
thing to overcloud, or diminish its moral 
perception. 

Let your child compare the account 
which it at present can give, with the ac- 
count which it formerly gave, and thus see 
the connection which its past state had, and 
which its present state has, with divine 
love, if there be moral improvement. 

Let the child constantly compare that 
which it actually is, does, and experiences, 
with what divine love makes it hope to be, 
to do, and to experience. 

Never let the child look to any future 
advantage of its present doings, nor suffer 
it to gather a present gratification from its 
past doings. 

Let the child look within to the spirit, 
in order to see what it must become, it has 
become, and what it is ; looking ever to the 
divine end of its being. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 21 

If your child feels insufficient for itself, 
and seeks for a centre to sustain its being, 
beware then of giving it an artificial and 
incompetent centre out of itself; but let it 
find the m-forming spirit that is the creating 
and only effectual centre. 

Keep off from your child all artificial 
support, or anything else, which withdraws 
it outwardly from the central spirit. 

Let the child study nature always in na- 
ture, rather than in books, so that the na- 
ture-imagining-spirit, will never vanish 
from its feelings. 

Do not endeavor to extract for your child 
from the matter, but let the spirit through 
the child penetrate the matter. 

Let the child study human nature always 
in actual life, not in mere words, so that 
the in-creating spirit will never vanish from 
its will. 

Let the child find the divine nature al- 



22 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

ways in its being, not in exterior facts, so 
that the in-loving spirit will never vanish 
from its conscience. 

Give your child time always to become 
conscious vnthin itself, of the exterior im- 
pression made upon it, in the society of 
others. 

Let your child be alone only after having 
been in good company, for when it comes 
from worldly company, it will always be 
bad company to itself 

Do not endeavor to captivate your child 
by any art, but let it feel that divine love 
alone is the tie, which connects its own and 
human society to Love itself 

Whenever your child's love becomes an 
object of its caprice, it ceases to be love, it 
is nothing more than a sickly thirst of love. 

Never let your child look outtvard for the 
ground of its conviction. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 23 

Let your child find in its knowledge, 
that which enables it to know. 

Let your child find in its belief, that 
which causes it to believe. 

Let your child find in its love, that love 
which enables it to love. 

Let the child find in every one of its senses 
that m-sensating spirit, that makes it sen- 
sible. 

Be always aware that the foundation of 
all that your child is to learn, is not to be 
put into it by your own teaching, but that 
Love alone is this foundation. 

In endeavoring to fill the child's nature 
with exterior things, you exhaust it of in- 
terior realities. 

Suffer not your child to take a view of 
the exterior results of its instruction. 



24 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Let your child step by step carry these 
results to the Love-Spirit within it, that it 
may purify them. 

Words are not the sole means of convey- 
ing ideas from one to the other, but only 
the means of representing ideas. 

That your child may have language it- 
self, you must not give it words alone, but 
let it get its ideas from the Love-Spirit. 

Do not think that the words which your 
child speaks is language, but that language 
is the divine voice formed into ideas, with 
which the words learned sympathize. 

The words which you give to your child, 
must be but the names of those ideas which 
the spirit has developed in the child. 

Teach not your child anything that it 
may be able merely to answer questions on 
the subject, but to know that subject well. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 25 

Ask not your child questions upon what 
it has discoveredj for if you do, it will 
think itself wise— let it inform you of it- 
self 

Ask your child questions about what 
wisdom has not yet discovered to it, for 
thereby it will be aware that wisdom is not 
yet instinct in it. 

Talk not to your child of your paternal 
rights over it, or of the limits of those rights, 
but exercise those rights so kindly^ that 
your child will of itself acknowledge them 
to be good, and never think of looking for 
their limits. 

Talk not to your child on the effect that 
your proceeding is to produce, for if your 
proceeding needs explanation, it will never 
produce its effect. 

Talk not to your child about the motives 
from which you act, but let your actions be 
in correspondence with the highest good, 
3 



26 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

and the child will itself be aware of the 
good that is in your motives. 

Never tell the child that you act out of 
love, but really put so much love into the 
act that the child will be sure to find it out 
from its loveliness. 

Never think that you will dispose your 
child by words to what you have indisposed 
it by facts. 

Never reason with your child on that 
which it should believe from divine instinct 
alone. 

Impose not on the child to believe on 
your authority what ought to be submitted 
to its own reasoning. 

Never separate belief and reasoning when 
they ought to work together for the purpose 
of clearing up the child's relation with the 
in-loving Spirit. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE 27 

All that is above the child is a subject of 
the child's belief. 

All that is below the child is an object of 
the child's reasoning. 

All that is equal to the child is an object 
of its belief as well as its reasoning. 

Let your child submit to all that is above 
it, not only by beliefj but also by volition. 

Let your child master all that is below it, 
not only by its reasoning, but also by its 
activity. 

Let the child display its equality to 
that which is equal to it, not only by ex- 
terior forms, but by a mutual interior sym- 
pathy. 

The relation that is divine, and the rela- 
tion that is harmonious, is a subject of the 
child's belief. 



28 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

All that is terrestrial, and all that is sin- 
gle, is a subject of the child's reasoning. 

All that is human, and all that is social, 
is an object of the child's belief as well as 
its reasoning. 

Your love is a sympathy in the child's 
consciousness. 

Your doings are objects of the child's 



Yoiir justice is a representation of the 
divine justice to the child's belief, as well 
as to its reasoning. 

If you suffer to be unfolded in your child, 
the consciousness of the inacting spirit, it 
will direct its attention not to X\\e facts of 
life, but to that which is producing them. 

Let the child, when witnessing a good 
effect^ always inquire how the cause relates 
it to its origin. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE, 29 

Let the child never witness a bad effectj 
without inquiring after the end that has 
disturbed the cause. 

Let the child distinguish clearly between 
end, causes, and effects. 

Let the child distinguish between a bad 
effect, resulting from that which disturbs 
the cause, and a bad effect resulting from 
the in-forming Spirit under unfavourable 
conditions. 

Let the child distinguish between a good 
effect, and the good in the cause. 

Let the child be aware of the source from 
which the good, in the impressions made 
upon it, springs. 

Let the child distinguish between its in- 
tentions, its thoughts, and its actions. 

Let the child not judge of the actions of 
others by the effects which it feels at the 
3* 



so 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



moment^ but wait on the Spirit within to 
estimate their value. 

Let the child measure others by that 
which he wishes to be, and to do only that 
good, to which it is inwardly related. 

Let the child distinguish between the 
divine purpose, and its intentions. 

Let the child not judge of its own actions, 
according to the effects that they produce, 
but according to their value with the inte- 
rior relations. 

Let the child be aware of the impression, 
which it awakens in others by its state. 

Never give the child a motive, but let it 
find the mover himself within its own will. 

Never tell the child by words what is 
the will of God, but let the child's love, 
aided by your love, find the divine will in 
its own will. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 31 

Never exhort your child to love, for a 
commanded love is but a lifeless image of 
love. 

Never exhort your child to gratitude, for 
thanks which are exacted will be patches 
of excess or defect. 

Never tell the child how it must behave 
to any person, but allow the child to feel 
its true relation to the centre, and from it 
find how it is to behave to all. 

Never impose a duty on your child on 
general grounds, but let it find duty itself 
as its own interior law. 

Never let the child measure by its ex- 
perience what it is able to do, but by the 
power in its interior feeling. 

The only measure by which your child 
can measure what it does^ is that which 
enables it to do. 

Let not your child waste its moral 



32 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Strength in doing that which has no moral 
end. 

It is by preserving that which is within, 
in its strength, that the child becomes 
strong enough to do its duties without. 

Never give the child an aim without 
itself, but let the image of what it is to be, 
form the .^interior aim of its whole being. 

Let every day of your child's life be the 
discovery of that which prevents its attain- 
ing the inner aim. 

Never hold out to the child a vocation 
in exterior life, as the end of its Education, 
and much less as the motive for fulfilling 
its duties. 

Never hold out to your child the rank 
which it may hold in society as a basis 
upon which you found its education. 

Let your child never build upon any- 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 33 

thing which does not yet exist, and which 
it only expects. 

Let the child observe what it does, and 
how, and wherefore, but let it never look 
forward to the results, for the true result of 
the child's doings, can never be known till 
after its doings. 

Never judge your child, and much less 
treat it according to the effect which its 
actions produce upon yourself, or upon any 
of the family, but only according to the 
moral value which the action has in the 
divine purpose. 

Never let your child be directed by the 
idea of becoming useful, but by the divine 
idea, and it will be truly useful to whom- 
soever it meets with. 

For he who has his usefulness to others 
in view, will never become truly useful ; 
and, therefore, if you have your usefulness 
to your children in view, you will never 
become truly useful to them. 



34 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Guard not the child's moral nature a- 
gainst wasteful expenditure, by selfish cal- 
culations. 

Let not the child exchange the moral 
substances for the physical elements. 

Let the child never derive any motive 
from its understanding, but let the good 
in the moral feelings, so far as it is devel- 
oped, be the inmoving power. 

The intellectual faculties will, and must, 
by their reflection upon the physical feel- 
ings, influence the development of the lat- 
ter, and for the better, as they are better 
influenced. 

Never induce your child to sacrifice its 
wishes by promising it a future, or higher 
gratification, for a sacrifice made for a re* 
ward is a selfish act. 

Never let the child hope for an exterior 
reward, but let Divine love in its own 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 35 

beauty strengthened by the reception of 
your love, be its inner reward. 

Let every reward, which you bestow on 
your child, be of such a moral nature, that 
it may become a stimulus for its future ac- 
tivity, and not a gratification of its thirst for 
enjoyment. 

Never cause the child to make any exte- 
rior atonement for its transgressions, but 
let the voice of its conscience, confirmed by 
your reproof, be an interior atonement. 

If the child's moral will, be too weak to 
produce moral action, never punish the child 
but assist its moral nature to recover 
strength. 

Let your child never consider what it 
may expect from others, but let it always 
keep in view what it is expending by ex- 
pecting. 

But that your child may not expend the 



36 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

better, do not lead it to external expecta- 
tion. 

Let your child feel entirely independent 
as to its actions, but let it feel an entire de- 
pendence as to its being. 

Do not endeavor to move your child to 
good actions, or to prevent it from bad ac- 
tions, but direct your whole influence upon 
that good from which actions spring. 

By directing your operation upon the 
manifestation of the child's nature, instead 
of the good in that nature, you render that 
nature the less and less susceptible of the 
good. 

Never strive to make your child's nature 
manifest itself as agreeably as possible, but 
strive to let the Spirit manifest itself easily 
and gracefully. 

Do not endeavor to accustom your child 
to what is externally becoming, but awaken 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 37 

in it the divine spirit which will create for 
itself a becoming exterior. 

Let your child's exterior manners and in- 
terior sentiments and dignity, be the expres- 
sions and impressions of the spirit. 

Never exhort the child to anything upon 
the ground of example, since the same ac- 
tion is altogether dijfferent when proceeding 
from a diiferent origin. 

Never let habit become more than a fa- 
cilitating condition of the child's actions. 

Let your child in its organs and in its 
powers be evolved by the divine spirit ; all 
that you have to do is to interfere when it 
shall adventure on a dangerous way. 

Follow the example of the Spirit, which 
affords man free use of his organs and his 
powers, and never internally abandons 
him, being always at hand to save from 
total inner destruction. 
4 



38 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Guard your child from the waste which 
a violent exercise of its powers causes to it. 

Let your child exercise its powers al- 
ways in harmony with the capital which 
it has to exercise them with. 

Inner strength is provided for all exterior 
actions that are in conformity to it. 

Every action which is not in conformity 
with the inner law, is a destructive expend* 
iture of the moral stimulus. 

Let the child freely display and fully 
enjoy the beauties of art in so far as they 
manifest the in-forming spirit, which per- 
vades human consciousness and human 
freedom. 

Guard your child from any violent ex- 
citements of its faculties. 

Let all the excitements upon the faculties 
of your child, harmonize with your child's 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 39 

relation to the harmonizing spirit within 
it. 

Every exterior expression ought to be in 
harmony with the central law, which 
strengthens the powers and the organs. 

Every expenditure, which is contrary 
to the divine law, exhausts the divine sub- 
stance in the power and in the organs. 

Do not expose your child to the extremes, 
but keep its mind constantly attentive to the 
centre. 

Never claim the attention of your child 
when you feel disposed to preach morals, 
but be always ready to aid it^ when it ad- 
dresses you for the sake of its moral eleva- 
tion. 

When your child has exhausted its own 
resources, turn it immediately to the Spirit, 
for this is the precious moment when it 
will fully receive the divine stimuli. 

Never make great exertions to provide 



40 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

enjoyments for your child ; cast it upon the 
Spirit, who will provide all that it needs — 
true enjoyments. 

If you try to satisfy the child, it will 
have fancies ; but when the Spirit satisfies 
the child, it will have moral facts. 

If you gratify the fancies of your child, 
you draw it from the spirit, who alone 
makes moral facts. 

By irritating your child, very far from 
heightening its activity, you exhaust inte- 
rior stimuli ; for the more, and the stronger 
impressions are made upon it, the less it is 
able to gather the interior energy. 

To diminish the irritability of your child, 
let it be interiorly concentrative ; for the 
more concentration takes place at the cen- 
tre, the less it is liable to be overcome at 
the circumference. 

In order to have your child externally 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 41 

persevering, you must let it persevere in 
concentrating the inner stimulating power. 

The true activity of the child does not 
consist in occupying itself with that which 
is true to you, but in concentrating the good 
which is good to it. 

It is by an outward activity only that 
your child will fall upon the unnatural 
conception, to consider non-activity as a 
good, or even as a reward of its activity. 

Let not your child have any other relax- 
ation than that variety which will relate 
him to unity. 

The child which is not allowed nor di- 
rected to occupy the good in itself, will al- 
ways occupy itself in the bad. 

Never sacrifice to the acquirement of 

outward abilities the moral substance which 

the giver requires for his purpose. 
4* 



42 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Guard your child from wasting the high- 
er influences in earthly care and sorrow. 

Do not render your child's powers and 
faculties serviceable to the acquirement of 
the means of life, before it has conceived 
the living idea, or else it will mistake the 
gifts for the giver. 

Waste not your child's substance in work- 
ing for its bread ; as long as its powers are 
not yet fully developed, the moral power 
must be reserved for interior purposes. 

Before you think of gathering exterior 
means for your child, take care that it gath- 
ers the interior substances for itself. 

If your child has the power to use exte- 
rior means, it has also the interior power 
to acquire them, should you not be able to 
do so. 

Every element in your child's nature is 
acted upon only by a similar substance in 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 43 

yoUj or in whatever influences the child, 
within or without. 

You cannot cherish the animal faculties 
of your child, without having acquired for 
yourself the full and free use of your limbs 
and senses. 

The child's senses cannot be developed 
hj imitations of nature, but only by nat- 
ural objects. 

The child's physical powers must be al- 
lowed to have a free action upon physical 
nature, for the child becomes much more 
intimate with physical nature, when it is 
only reactive, than when it is primitively 
active. 

The physical aspect of nature, which un- 
folds itself in the child's consciousness and 
freedom, must be tried by the infallible mor- 
al freedom. 

You cannot cherish the divine germ in 
your child^ without your own interior and 
spiritual life has actually received it. 



44 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Let the child's mind never languish un- 
der the exhaustion of the artificial forms of 
society, but let the concentrating force be 
such as to gather sufficient power to rule 
its feelings and its conditions. 

Take care not to act too much upon 
your child, for fear that you should check 
its concentrating activity ; the child will 
be much more sensitive if you reflect its 
activity upon its centre, than if you make 
spontaneous impressions upon it by your 
own activity. 

The spiritual aspect of nature, which un- 
folds itself in the child's personality, must 
be tried by the central law, that rules with- 
in and without. 

You cannot cherish the germ of the di- 
vine life in your child, without having this 
divine germ developed in you. 

Do not inculcate in your child the words 
of faith, before it has been enabled, by the 
development of its intellectual aspect, to 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 45 

conceive a sense of that good which it is to 
receive. 

Let the child learn, by a free display of 
its physical aspects, how far they are in- 
sufficient for the higher purposes. 

The consciousness of the divine germ, 
which unfolds itself in the child's will must 
be tried by the Divine Spirit, which mani- 
fested itself in the Divine nature^ in Jesus 
of Nazareth. 

Let nothing be the foundation for your 
doings, but the goodness within your own 
nature, that is to say, the Divine Germ in 
it. 

Do not talk more to your child of God 
than it can feel by your conduct that you 
adore him. 

Let your child see that your fear of God 
extends beyond the hour of prayer, and its 
obedience to you will also extend beyond 
your presence. 



46 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Do not exhort your child to believe in 
Jesus, on accomit of the happiness which is 
promised to those who believe in him, and 
who follow his example. 

Let the child become conscious that 
Christ is within it, and it will feel that it is 
to this divine nature, that Divine revelation 
is addressed : and that the divine nature 
must crucify self^ before it can make it a 
Christian. 

There is no harmony besides the imiver- 
sal harmony^ which is God's wisdom and 
love ; and it is in this only that your being 
and your child's being can become harmo- 
nious. 

The first condition of your obtaining 
your child's confidence and submission, is, 
to claim it not for yourself^ but only for 
what is divine in you. 

The second condition of obtaining and 
preserving your child's confidence and sub- 
mission, is, to have in yourself an nnshBkG- 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 47 

able confidence in that which is divine in 
your child. 

The child's submission to ivhat is divine 
in its own nature, is the only true founda- 
tion of its obedience to you. 

If the child submits not to what is divine 
in its nature, it cannot and will not submit 
to you. 

Never make the performance of your du- 
ty towards your child dependent upon the 
child's doing its duty towards you. 

Do unto your child exactly that which 
the love-spirit is doing within to you. 

Let the child be made aware of the ne- 
cessity of preserving the moral substance 
within its being, that love may act in it 
and by it. 

Let the child be aware of its moral in- 
fluence upon you, and you will have a 
moral influence upon it. 



48 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

As soon as the child sees that you want 
to discharge your duty with as much ease 
as possible, it will claim the same right for 
itself. 

As soon as the child sees that you do 
not care about the occupation to which its 
nature leads it, it will not care about the 
occupation to which you would lead it. 

Beware of offending the Divine Germ in 
your child, for this is the only source of 
true authority over your child. — '^duench 
not the Spirit." 

Never found anything upon the child's 
selfishness, or upon its sensuality. 

As soon as the child sees it must address 
itself to your selfishness, it will give you 
full access to its own selfishness. 

Gratify not your own vanity by the ex- 
hibition of your child ; let its blushing 
cheek be a lesson to yourself. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 49 

As soon as the child sees that it has to 
follow your vanity, it wants its own vanity- 
flattered by you. 

If you cannot call forth a noble action in 
your child, you had better renounce action 
for the moment. 

By connecting a noble quality in the 
child's life with a given motive, you jt>ro- 
fane that quality, and you degrade in your 
child the power that produces it, as well as 
the faculty that conceives it. 

But if you lead the child to preserve the 
nohle quality, the noble quality will enable 
your child to act. 

To prevent or root out the bad, there is 
no other way than to open the door that the 
good may flow in. 

In order to produce harmony in your 
child's life, you must not arouse the con- 
tradictions of its nature against each other, 
but assist and cherish the harmonizing prin- 
5 



50 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

ciple which will cause discordances la 
cease. 

Your love is the assistance to all the good 
in your child. 

Your love must allow your child the 
free performance of its duties, and a free 
access to the good. 

Your justice is the resistance to all that 
is bad in your child. 

Your justice must only resist the child's 
violation of its duty and the abuse of its 
rights. 

It is by your love, and not by your jus- 
tice, that the child must learn in what good 
its duties consist. 

Let your child's fear be not a fear o{ losing 
the effects of your love, but a fear of afflict- 
ing your love. 

To preserve your child in love and in 
truth, be always true and loving towards 



• SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 51 

it; for the child's waywardness and false- 
hood, is nothing but its self-defence against 
your sideward activity. 

li Y on punish in your child the effect of 
what you ought to have corrected in your- 
self^ you violate at once your duty to the 
Spirit in yourself, and to the Spirit in your 
child. 

To secure your child against excess or 
defect, you must let all its powers concen- 
trate the good. 

Instead of striving to give your child a 
possibility of gratifying those artificial 
wants, which you would not gratify in 
your own life, seek the Spirit to free it from 
them. 

Do not teach your child to appear what 
it is not, but to seek the real good^ that is 
better than all appearance. 

You cannot guard your child against all 



52 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

the hurtful experiences of Ufe, but you can 
guard the good that will overcome them. 

To guard your child against being hurt 
by the experiences of life, you must let it 
concentrate the good power. 

Never raise in your child the expectation 
oi any reward ivhatever^ and it will be nev- 
er disappointed. 

If your child be thus secured from disap- 
pointment, the Spirit will secure its divine 
purpose, your child will be most blessed. 

If your child be not secured from disap- 
pointment, the bitterness of evil will poison 
the sweets of the good. 

Observe carefully the different aspects of 
development; for it is by this observation 
only, that you can assist your child's exist- 
ence in every period from excess or defect. 

Do not exact spiritual energy so long as 
your child is only on the physical aspect of 
its nature. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 53 

Consider that in your child you have not 
only a young animal to feed^ but also a 
young spirit to guide home by Love. 

Let not your child make itself too 
familiar with animals, and avoid as much 
as it can, persons of an animal spirit. 

Beware of pampering the chiXdi^s physical 
nature, for, by dohig so, you fetter the 
Spiritual and the Divine. 

Never allow your child to be acted upon 
only in its animal existence ; let the quality 
in every impression speak to the Spirit. 

Do not continue the use of physical 
means, beyond the period of the physical 
aspect, because they will be hindrances to 
the inner aspects. 

Your child's physical aspect is not bad 
in itself, but it becomes bad if you do not 
cherish the inner aspects that are to rule it 

You cannot cherish the intellectual aspect 
5* 



54 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

of your child, which must rule the physi- 
cal aspect, but as you develope the divine 
laws within it. 

The development of the child's body does 
not consist in the exercise only of all its 
organs, it depends essentially upon the 
Spirit, that makes all the inner faculties its 
instruments. 

The exercise of all the powers and organs 
of the body must be the result of the Spirifs 
central activity. 

The consciousness of the powers and 
faculties of the body, and of its instru- 
mentality, must result from the Spirit 
working in its will 

Let the child find first its body as dis- 
tinct from itself^ and as an instrument of 
the Spirit's actions. 

Let the child find the different parts of 
its body, and how the Spirit unites them to 
form the complete body. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 55 

Let the child find the properties of the 
Spirit in the body, and the Spirit in the 
properties. 

Let the child find the spirit in its actions, 
and in its sensations ; in its thoughts, and 
in its feelings. 

Let the child become inwardly conscious 
of the Spirit in its conscience. 

Let the child become conscious how far 
it deadens itself, by the reception of the 
extermr deteriorating influences. 

From the moment the child is conscious 
of the interior end^ the divine existence in 
the chad is begun. 

Do not exhort your child to give up its 
human Spirit to the Divine Spirit, before it 
is free from the inferior powers. 

To have its human Spirit in its own 
power, the child must not only free it from 
the physical aspect, but also from intellec- 
tual WELstefulness. 



56 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Whilst you lead your child to an outward 
expenditure, consider always that you have 
not only a human spirit to cultivate, but 
that you have to reserve the elements neces- 
sary for the unfolding of a divine germ. 

Never give your child any degree or 
direction of human culture, as the image 
of what it is to become, but always bear in 
mind, that the image of God is to be by 
God, restored in the child. 

Never propose to your child any charac- 
ter, and the least of all your own, as the 
model, according to which the child is to 
form itself 

Take care not to flatter the child's 
spiritual nature, for, by so doing, you place 
yourself with your child on the level of hu- 
man selfishness. 

Suff'er not your child to be acted upon 
only in its spiritual existence, but let the 
good in every impression have the sanction 
of the Divine Good, or else the transition 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 57 

from spiritual life to the divine love, will 
not take place. 

Do not continue to show your child the 
divine existence in its personal appearance, 
beyond the period of its personal life, merely 
because the child will find itself restrained 
in its endeavors to unite itself with the Di- 
vine Being in its universality. 

Do not prove to your child the truth of 
revelation by the miracles operated at the 
time of its introduction on the earth, but 
let the child find the real miracle in its own 
person. 

The child's spiritual nature is not bad 
in itself, but it becomes so if you waste it, 
and neglect that good which shall become 
the ruler of it. 

You cannot cherish the divine nature in 
your child which shall overrule it, but upon 
the principle of preserving the moral sub- 
stances in that nature. 



58 SPIPwITUAL CULTURE. 

The concentrating of the child's spirit- 
ual existence is essentially necessary, that 
the Divine spirit may have a spiritual in- 
strument with which to work. 

The concentration of the spiritual sub- 
stances, must be the result of the central 
activity in the child. 

Without there be a secreting and concen- 
trating of the moral substance, the spirit 
cannot permanently establish itself in the 
child. 

Let the child become conscious first of 
its own spirit as distinct from the Logos^ 
the divine nature within it, and as an in- 
strument for the purposes of that divine 
nature. 

Let the child become conscious of the 
different organs of its Spirit, and of the re- 
lations which they have with Unity. 

Let the child become conscious of the 
Spirit, in every one of its spiritual organs. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 69 

Let the child become conscious of the 
representations which it can make, and 
the impressions it can receive, by every one 
of its spiritual organs. 

Let the child become conscious of the 
primary purpose, which it has by its spir- 
itual organs to represent. 

Let the child become conscious that it 
can exchange its present nature for a 
worse. 

Let the child distinguish between the 
good that God has placed in its nature and 
the disturbing principle to which its Spirit 
has given birth, by endeavoring to with- 
draw itself from the divine Spirit. 

If your child be brought to a full con- 
sciousness of the good^ and to distinguish it 
clearly from the bad^ it will not hesitate to 
renounce the latter and submit to the for- 
mer. 

From the moment when the child sub- 



60 SPIRITUAL CULTUKE. 

mits to the divine good within itself, the 
unfolding of its own good or divine germ 
is begun. 

As soon as the divine germ in your child 
unfolds itself, the truth of revelation will 
be self evident, and needs no proof of yours ; 
there will be Christ bearing witness to him- 
self in the heart of your child. 

Observe carefully the different charac- 
ters of both the sexes, for it is by this ob- 
servation only that you can preserve a 
pure and benejficial influence upon each of 
them. 

Do not forget that the divine good, to 
which the spiritual life is a means only, is 
the same in both sexes. 

As the end is the same, so also the fac- 
ulties destined to represent that end are es- 
sentially suited to each. 

The difference between them results from 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 61 

the combination of those faculties, and the 
different degree of importance which they 
have in the hfe of both the sexes. 

The difference between the sexes is no 
inequality, for there is not less certainty 
in the feelings of woman than in man's 
understanding. 

Let the peculiar character of each sex be 
developed in the interior life, and that will 
better secure them than walls or doors. 

To let the peculiar character of the sex- 
es be freely developed, you must, as much 
as you possibly can, bring them up togeth- 
er. 

Let the beneficial influence of man act 
upon the girl, and the soft influence of wo- 
man upon the boy. 

Do not shut up your daughter from the 
exercises and liveliness which prevails in 
the society of boys. 
6 



62 SFIRITXTAL CULTURE. 

Do not shut up your son from the grace 
and loveUness which prevails in the society 
of girls. 

Do not allow the feelings to occupy the 
whole of your daughter's existence, but 
cultivate her understanding with relation 
to the Spirit. 

Do not offend the Spirit in the feelings of 
your daughter, by submitting them to the 
scourge of the understandings for woman 
in her feelings beholds the Spirit which man 
often hardly undertands. 

The only way of cultivating your daugh- 
ter's understanding, is to let her give an 
account of the good in her feelings, and so 
lead her to relate the good to the Spirit. 

Surround your daughter with the sphere 
of natural existence, for the good which 
she will develope in artificial existence can 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 63 

never be understood by her, nor any one 
else. 

Your daughter will never elevate herself 
above the feeling of individual beauty to 
the universal feeling of moral harmony, if 
you do not allow the good in her feelings 
to be purified by the presence of divine 
Love. 

Do not allow the understanding to be 
the whole of your son's existence, but di- 
rect the good in his feelings to the Spirit- 
Do not stupify your boy's understanding 
by endeavoring to force his feelings to 
take ivords instead of things^ which are 
suitable to them. 

The only way to cultivate the good in 
your son's feelings, is to allow him freely 
to exercise his good on all those objects 
upon which his understanding is exercised 
and concentrated in the Spirit. 



64 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Let your son's understanding exercise it- 
self upon the essence and not upon the 
shadow of creation as far as his view ex- 
tends ; for the result of his being occupied 
with words alone, can never become the 
good of a feeling. 

Your son will never elevate himself above 
the personal tendency of individual truth 
to the universal tendency of moral dignity, 
if you do not allow the goodin his intellec- 
tual life to be co-associated with the good 
in his feelings. 

If moral harmony in the feelings be not 
developed in your daughter, a truly re- 
ligious life will never unfold itself in her. 

If moral dignity in the feehngs be not 
developed in your son, a truly religious life 
will never unfold itself in him. 

If moral harmony be developed in your 
daughter's feelings, she will conceive that 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 65 

there is no harmony in the human feeUngs, 
unless the Spirit engenders it 

If moral dignity in the feelings be devel- 
oped in your son, he will conceive that 
there is no dignity for the human being, 
unless it be the instrument of God. 

It is in this harmony that womaii will be 
able to conceive man^s understanding ; and 
in this dignity would man be able to sym- 
pathize with woman! s feelings. 

Upon this foundation their union will 
produce an harmonious existence in do- 
mestic life, and the life of their children 
will grow in it as in a blessed soil- 
Let your children partake in the glow- 
ing moments of your own interior elevation ; 
for they may deeply feel^ though they be 
not able as yet to understand. 

Allow your child to contribute by th^ el- 
6* 



66 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

evation of the good in its own feelings to 
all the solemnities which it witnesses in 
others. 

Let the glorious changes of nature be 
delightful solemnities in which the good in 
your child's heart may partake. 

Let all the days of remembrance, in fam- 
ily life, be days of dehghtful solemnity to 
your child. 

Let all the days of religious remembrance 
be days of delightful solemnity to your 
child. 

The days of solemnity are the days in 
which you can guide your child from the 
good to the real good, from whence it can 
cast a serene and delightful look upon all 
the labyrinths and valleys beneath. 

He who has once seen the beauty of di- 
vine life from its lofty height, will never 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 67 

despond, wheiij in the loiver station of 
worldly life, clouds overhang his sky. 

He who is made able to see that the 
beauty in Nature, the Eternal Will in man, 
and the goodness in God make the one 
great harmony is the only religious, the on- 
ly happy man ; in him the divine germ has 
fructified, and God's image is restored un- 
to him, of faith ^' for Christ dwelleth in his 
Spirit." 




GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 

TO MOTHERS, &c. 



Affection is the primitive motive in the 
education of the child. Be cautious there- 
fore in the first exercise of your authority, 
that every step may be justified by con- 
science and by experience ; think of the 
important consequences of your measures 
for the future welfare of your child, for 
which you are responsible ; view your au- 
thority as a duty, rather than a prerogative, 
but never consider it as absolute. Watch 
the divine instinct in thy child's first efforts, 
muse upon it, it is the germ of future aff^ec- 
tion^ thought^ and action^ it is all important 
to thee and to it, and furnishes thee with 
many a virtuous impulse and many a proli- 
fic thought. In thy child's instruction let 



70 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

kindness be the ruling principle, for to in- 
terest the mind and to form the heart, noth- 
ing is so permanently influential as affec- 
tion ; it is the easiest way to attain the 
highest ends. If thou wouldst ensure the 
lasting respect of thy child, thou must, in 
thine own person, present the conditions, 
whereby all its wants may be supplied, 
whether physical^ mental^ or moral. 

The faculties of thy child must be so 
cultivated, that no one shall predominate 
at the expense of another, but each be ex- 
cited to the true standard of activity. If 
afllection and confidence have once gained 
ground in the heart of thy child, it will be 
thy first duty to do everything in thy power 
to encourage, to strengthen, and to elevate 
their nature by the devotion of thy being 
, to the interior harmonizing love-source 
whence flows aff"ection and confidence. 
The aflfection of thy child can never be en- 
couraged, except by thy aflfection ; its con- 
fidence can never be gained, except by thy 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 71 

confidence ; the tone of thine own mind 
must raise that of thy child. Do not desire 
of thy child to believe that which appears 
correct to thee, but let its belief be depen- 
dent upon its own reasoning. Do not shut 
out thy child from the development of those 
faculties, which may not be conceived by 
thee to be essential to its future calhng or 
station in life. 

The greatest consideration will be neces- 
sary in the mode of communicating knowl- 
edge to thy infant's mind, or it will either 
not gain access to its mind, or remain un- 
profitable, neither suiting its faculties, nor 
exciting its interest. The education be- 
stowed upon thy child must be exhibited 
in its triune aspect, physical^ mental^ and 
moral. In all thy educative efforts, the 
powers of the handj head, and heart must 
be conjointly engaged. The preparation of 
thy child for Universal Science, must be 
effected by the harmonious treatment of 
number^ form^ and language. The mind 



72 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

of thy infant must be acted upon by illus- 
trations taken from reality, and not by rules 
taken from abstraction ; he must be taught 
by THINGS more than by words. 



The Keligious feelings* 

Let Love lead thy child to love the good, 
and the good will manifest itself in it ; but 
this cannot be effected by the /ear of dis- 
pleasing thee. Let the knowing and doing 
of thy child be evolved from its beings and 
its expressions will be correct representa- 
tions of the vitality within it. Do not im- 
plant thy knowledge in thy child, but nour- 
ish that living inborn knowledge implanted 
in it by the Creator. Do not require of thy 
child that it should listen to thy didactic 
morality, but be always ready to assist it, 
when it addresses you, for its moral im- 
provement. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 73 

The better nature of thy infant must be 
encouraged as early as possible, to struggle 
against the overgrowing power of the ani- 
mal instinct which is the basis of the lower 
nature of man. Fear can never act as a 
moral restraint, it can only act as a stimu- 
lus to the physical appetite, and exasperate 
and alienate the mind. Never oppose thy 
precepts by thy examples ; to avoid this it 
will be necessary that thou studiest thy 
deeds more than thy words. The con- 
ditions presented by thee to thy child to be 
efficient as the developing aid to its divine 
nature, must harmonize with the universal 
love^ wisdom^ and power. 



The Mental Capacities. 

Let the impressions made upon thy child 
always be commensurate to, and in harmo- 
ny with the measure and character of the 
powers already unfolded in it. It is not 

7 



74 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

any description of knowledge that is re- 
quired to be possessed by thee in the devel- 
opment of thy child, but an ever active ap- 
plication of A THINKING LOVE. Do UOt with- 
hold anything of which thy child is capa- 
ble, nor burden and confound it with things 
which it cannot manage. Let thy child 
first become conversant with itself, and 
afterwards with that which surrounds it. 
Lead thy child to form distinct notions con- 
cerning every object, and to express these 
notions clearly in language. Do not let 
thy child know the name first, but let it 
first know that which the name signifies. 
The vital education of thy child cannot be 
effected by the externalities of form, but by 
thy sympathizing aid in the evolving of its 
informing creations. 

The teaching of thy child must not be to 
enable it to answer questions upon the sub- 
ject, but to understand the subject well, and 
to express its own ideas upon it. In the 
education of thy child do not merely con- 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 75 

sider what is to be imparted to it, but first, 
consider what it already possesses, if not 
as a developed, at least as an involved 
faculty capable of development. There is 
a very wide difference between that knowl- 
edge, which is dependent upon the mere 
passive receptivity of the memory, and 
that which is evolved from the Being by 
the activity of the other faculties of the 
mind. It is no proof that knowledge has 
been acquired merely because terms have 
been committed to the memory. Do not 
attempt to cultivate the memory of thy 
child, before its intellect is somewhat ex- 
panded, for the faculty of discernment is 
then unformed, and unable to consign to 
the memory the notions of separate objects 
in their distinctions from each other. Let 
thy child not only be acted upon^ but let it 
be an agent in intellectual education. 

Let language, as comprehensive and as 
pure as possible be imparted to thy child, 
that the expression of whatever has become 



76 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

or is becoming subject of its consciousness, 
whether in consequence of the spontaneous 
impulse of its own nature, or of the assist- 
ance of tuition, may be conducive to clear- 
ness in its own mind as well as to all about 
it. It will be of more lasting importance 
to thy child, if it be led to observe and to 
think, than to listen and to recollect. That 
which has been only heard by thy child 
may be forgotten, but that which has been 
felt and understood by it, will never be for- 
gotten. 



The Physical Existence. 

The child's animal nature must not be 
permitted to rule it, after its superior na- 
ture has commenced to unfold. Be regu- 
lar in thy attention to thy infant, but do 
not indulge its imaginary Avants, however 
importunely they be expressed ; from the 
cradle use it to submit its desires, that it 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 11 

may not hereafter be a mere creature of 
wants, forever unable to satiate its phys- 
ical appetites. Let thy child's physical 
existence be supported by the simplest diet, 
for if its physical appetites be pampered, 
its mental powers remain passive and un- 
conditionated for improvement. Thy 
child's appetites must not be indulged 
with what may be stimulating to further 
desire. If thy child be induced to the per- 
formance of an action for the sake of a re- 
ward, selfishness will be engendered in all 
its doings. Thy child's mind must be 
awakened by its instructor's mind, not by 
its instructor's books ; life must act upon 
life, and the heart of the child must be 
acted upon by the heart visible in the coun- 
tenance, the voic«, the manner, the whole 

expression of the instructor. 

7 # 



DOCTRINE 

OF SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



Man is the noblest of the Creator's works. 
He is the most richly gifted of all his crea- 
tures. His sphere of action is the broadest ; 
his influence the widest ; and to him is giv- 
en Nature and Life for his heritage and his 
possession. He is the rightful Sovereign of 
the Earth, fitted to subdue all things to 
himself, and to know of no superior, save 
God. And yet he enters upon the scene of 
his labors, a feeble and wailing Babe, at 
first unconscious of the place assigned him, 
and needs years of tutelage and discipline 
to fit him for the high and austere duties 
that await him. 

The Art which fits such a being to ful- 



80 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



fil his high destiny, is the first and noblest 
of arts. Human Culture reveals to a man 
the true Idea of his being — his endow- 
ments — his possessions— and fits him to use 
these for the growth, renewal, and perfec- 
tion of his Spirit. It is the art of completing 
man. It includes all those influences, and 
disciplines by which his faculties are un- 
folded and perfected. It is that agency 
which takes the helpless and pleading In- 
fant from the hands of its Creator ; and, 
apprehending its entire being tempts it forth 
— now by austere, and now by kindly in- 
fluence and discipline — and thus moulds it 
at last into the Image of a Perfect Man ; 
armed at all points, to use the Body, Na- 
ture, and Life, for its growth and renew- 
al, and to hold dominion over the fluctu- 
ating things of time. It seeks to realize in 
in the Soul the Image of the Creator. — Its 
end is a perfect man. Its aim, through ev- 
ery stage of influence and discipline, is 
self-renewal. The body, nature, and life 
are its instruments and materials. Jesus is 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 81 

its worthiest Ideal. Christianity its purest 
Organ. The Gospels its fullest Text-Book. 
Genius its Inspiration. Holiness its Law. 
Temperance its Discipline. Immortality- 
its Reward. 

This divine Art, including all others, or 
subordinating them to its Idea, was first 
apprehended in its breadth and depth of 
significance by Jesus of Nazareth. Over 
his Divine Intellect first flitted the Idea of 
man's endowments and destiny. He set 
no limits to the growth of our nature. '^Be 
ye Perfect even as my Father in Heaven 
is Perfect," was the high aim which he 
placed before his disciples ; and in this he 
was true to our nature, for the sentiment 
lives in every faculty and function of our 
being. It is the ever-sounding Trump of 
Duty, urging us to the perpetual work of 
self-renewal. It is the deep instinct of the 
spirit. And his Life gave the promise of 
of its realization. His achievements are a 
glimpse of the Apotheosis of Humanity : a 



82 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

glorious unfolding of the Godlike in man. 
They disclose the Idea of spirit. And if he 
was not, in himself, the complete fulfilment 
of Spirit, he apprehended its law and set 
forth its conditions. In him we behold the 
Incarnate Soiil, dealing with flesh and 
blood — tempted, and suffering — yet baffling 
and overcoming the ministries of Evil and 
of Pain. 

Still this Idea, so clearly announced, and 
so fully demonstrated in the being and life 
of Jesus, has not been apprehended by 
men. It has not become the ground and 
law of human consciousness. They have 
not married their nature to it by a living 
Faith. Nearly two millenniums have 
elapsed since its announcement, and yet, so 
slow of apprehension have been the suc- 
cessors of this divine Genius, that even at 
this day, the deep and universal signifi- 
cance of his Idea has not been fully taken 
in ; but restricted to himself alone. He 
stands in the minds of this generation, as a 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 83 

Phenomenon, which God, in the inscruta- 
ble designs of his Providence, saw fit to 
present, to the gaze and wonder of man- 
kind, yet as a being of unsettled rank in the 
universe, whom men may venture to imi- 
tate, but dare not approach. In him, the 
Human Nature is feebly apprehended, 
while the Divine is lifted out of sight, and 
lost in the ineifable light of the Godhead. 
Men do not deem him as the harmonious 
unfolding of Spirit into the Image of a per- 
fect Man — as a worthy Symbol of the Di- 
vinity, wherein Human Nature is revealed 
in its Fulness. — Yet, as if by an inward 
and irresistible Instinct, all men have been 
drawn to him ; and, while diverse in their 
opinions ; explaining his Idea in different 
types, they have given him the full and 
unreserved homage of their hearts. They 
have gathered around the altars, inscribed 
with his perfections, and through his 
name, delighted to address the God and 
Father of Spirits. Disowning him in their 



84 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

mindsj unable to grasp his Idea, they have 
deified hhn m their hearts. They have 
worshipped the Hohness which they could 
not define. 

It is the mission of this age, to revive his 
idea, give it currency, and reinstate it in 
the faith of men ; that by its quickening 
agency, it may fructify our common nature, 
unfold our being into the same divine like- 
ness, and reproduce Perfect Men. It is to 
mould anew our Institutions, our Manners, 
our Men ; to restore Nature to its rightful 
use ; purify Life ; hallow the functions of 
the Human Body, and regenerate Philoso- 
phy, Literature, Art, Society. To form 
the Divine Idea of a Man in the common 
consciousness of the age, and mould its 
genius in accordance with it. 

The means for reinstating this Idea in 
the common mind, are simple. And most 
effectual is the study of those Scriptures 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 85 

which delmeate the career of the Prophet 
of Nazareth. Therein have we a manifest- 
ation of Spirit, while undergoing the temp- 
tations of this corporeal life ; yet faithful to 
the laws of its renovation and its end. 
We learn then the significance of the Incar- 
nation ; the grandeur of our nature. We 
associate Jesus with our holiest aspirations, 
our deepest aifections ,• and he becomes a 
fit Mediator between the last age and the 
new era, of which he was the herald and 
the pledge ; the Prophet of two millen- 
niums, the brightest Symbol of a man that 
history afl'ords, an augury of yet fuller 
manifestations of the Godhead. 

And not only are these Gospels a fit text- 
book for the study of Spirit, in its corpo- 
real relations, but a specimen of the true 
method of imparting instruction. They 
give us the practice of Jesus himself. They 
unfold the means of addressing human na- 
ture. Jesus was a Teacher ; he sought to 
renovate Humanity. His method com- 
8 



86 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

mends itself to us : — it is a beautiful exhi- 
bition of his GeniuSj bearing the stamp of 
naturalness, force, and directness. It is 
popular. Instead of seeking formal and 
austere means, he rested his influence chief- 
ly on the living word, rising spontaneously 
in the soul, and clothing itself at once, in 
the simplest, yet most commanding forms. 
He was a finished extemporaneous speaker. 
His manner and style are models. In these, 
his Ideas became like the beautiful, yet 
majestic Nature, whose images he wove so 
skilfully into his diction. He was an Ar- 
tist of the highest order. More perfect 
specimens of address do not elsewhere ex- 
ist. View him in his conversation with 
his disciples. Hear him in his simple col- 
loquies with the people. Listen to him 
when seated at the well-side discoursing 
with the Samaritan woman, on the Idea of 
WoRsmp ; and at night with Nicodemus, 
on Spiritual Renewal. From facts and 
objects the most familiar, he slid easily and 
simply into the highest and holiest themes, 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 87 

and J in this unimposing guise, disclosed the 
great Doctrines, and stated the Divine Ideas 
that it was his mission to bequeath to his 
race. Conversation was the form of utter- 
ance that he sought. Of formal discourse 
but one specimen is given, in his Sermon 
on the Mount ; yet in this the inspiration 
bursts all forms, and he rises to the highest 
efforts of genius, at its close. 

This preference of Jesus for Conversation, 
is a striking proof of his comprehensive 
Idea of Education. He knew what was in 
man, and the means of perfecting his being. 
He saw the superiority of this exercise 
over others for quickening the Spirit. For, 
in this all the instincts and faculties of our 
being are touched. They find full and fair 
scope. It tempts forth all the powers. Man 
faces his fellow man. He holds a living 
intercourse. He feels the quickening life 
and light. The social affections are ad- 
dressed ; and these bring all the faculties in 
train. Speech comes unbidden. Nature 



88 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

lends her images. Imagination sends 
abroad her winged words. We see thought 
as it springs from the soul, and in the very- 
process of growth and utterance. Reason 
plays under the mellow light of fancy. The 
Genius of the Soul is w^aked, and eloquence 
sits on her tuneful lip. Wisdom finds an 
organ worthy her serene, yet imposing pro- 
ducts. Ideas stand in beauty and majesty 
before the Soul. 

And Genius has ever sought this organ 
of utterance. It has given us full testimo- 
ny in its favor. Socrates — a name that 
Christians can see coupled with that of 
their Divine Sage — descanted thus on the 
profound themes in which he dehghted. 
The market-place : the workshop ; the 
public streets ; were his favorite haunts of 
instruction. And the divine Plato has ad- 
ded his testimony, also, in those enduring 
works, wherein he sought to embalm for 
posterity, both the wisdom of his master 
and the genius that was his own. Pcich 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 89 

text-books these for the study of philosophic 
genius ; next in finish and beauty, to the 
specimens of Jesus as recorded by his be- 
loved John. 

It is by such organs that Human Nature 
is to be unfolded into the Idea of its ful- 
ness. Yet to do this, teachers must be 
men; men inspired with great and living 
Ideas, as was Jesus. Such alone are wor- 
thy. They alone can pierce the customs 
and conventions that hide the Soul from 
herself, and they release her from the slave- 
ry of the corporeal life. And such are 
ever sent at the call of Humanity. Some 
God, instinct with the Idea that is to regen- 
erate his age, appears in his time, as a 
flaming Herald and sends abroad the Idea 
which it is the mission of the age to organ- 
ize in institutions, and quicken into man- 
ners. Such mould the Genius of the time. 
They revive in Humanity the lost idea of 
its destiny, and reveal its fearful endow- 
ments. They vindicate the divinity of 
8^ 



90 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 



man's nature, and foreshadow on the com- 
ing Time the conquests that await it. An 
Age pre-exists in them ; and History is but 
the manifestation and issue of their Wis- 
dom and Will. They are tire Prophets of 
the Future. 

At this day, men need some revelation of 
Genius, to arouse them to a sense of their 
nature ; for the Divine Idea of a Man seems 
to have died out of our consciousness. En- 
cumbered by the gluts of the appetites, sunk 
in the corporeal senses, men know not the 
divine life that stirs within them, yet hid- 
den and enchained. They do not revere 
their own nature. And when the phe- 
nomenon of Genius appears, they marvel 
at its advent. Some Nature struggling 
with vicissitude, tempts forth the Idea of 
Spirit from within, an unlooses the Prom- 
ethean God to roam free over the earth. 
He possesses his Idea and brings it as a 
blessed gift to his race. With awe-struck 
visage, the tribes of semi-unfolded beings 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 91 

survey it from below, deeming it a partial 
or preternatural gift of the Divinity, into 
whose life and being they are forbidden, by 
a decree of the Eternal, from entering ; 
whose law they must obey, yet cannot ap- 
prehend. They dream not, that this phe- 
nomenon is but the complement of their 
common nature ; and that in this admira- 
tion and obedience, which they proffer, is 
both the promise and the pledge of the 
same powers in themselves ; that this is 
but their fellow-creature in the flesh. And 
thus the mystery of the love remains sealed 
till at last it is revealed, that this is but the 
unfolding of human- nature in its fulness ; 
working free of every incumbrance, by 
possessing itself. 

For Genius is but the free and harmoni- 
ous play of all the faculties of a human be- 
ing. It is a Man possessing his Idea and 
working with it. It is the Whole Man — 
the central Will — working worthily, sub- 
ordinating all else to itself; and reaching its 



92 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

end by the simplest and readiest means. 
It is human nature rising superior to things 
and eventSj and transfiguring these into 
the Image of its own Spiritual Ideal. It is 
the Spirit working in its own way, through 
its own organs and instruments, and on its 
own materials. It is the Inspiration of all 
the faculties of a Man by a life conform- 
ed to his Idea. It is not indebted to 
others for its manifestation. It draws its 
life from within. It is self-subsistent. It 
feeds on Holiness ; lives in the open vision 
of Truth ; enrobes itself in the light of 
Beauty ; and bathes its powers in the fount 
of Temperance. It aspires after the Per- 
fect. It loves Freedom. It dwells in Uni- 
ty. All men have it, yet it does not appear 
in all men. It is obscured by ignorance ; 
quenched by evil ; discipline does not reach 
it ; nor opportunity cherish it. Yet there 
it is — an original, indestructible element of 
every spirit ; and sooner or later, in this 
corporeal, or in the spiritual era— at some 
period of the SouFs development — it shall 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 93 

be tempted forth, and assert its claims in 
the hfe of the Spirit. It is the province of 
education to wake it, and disciphne it in- 
to the perfection which is its end, and for 
which it ever thirsts. Yet Genius alone 
can wake it. Genius alone inspire it. It 
comes not at the incantation of mere talent. 
It respects itself. It is strange to all save 
its kind. It shrinks from vulgar gaze, and 
lives in its own world. None but the eye 
of Genius can discern it, and it obeys the 
call of none else. 

Yet among us Genius is at its wane. 
Human Nature appears shorn of her beams. 
We estimate man too low to hope for 
bright manifestations. And our views cre- 
ate the imperfection that mocks us. We 
have neither great men, nor good institu- 
tions. Genius visits us but seldom. The 
results of our culture are slender. Thirsting 
for life and light, Genius is blessed with 
neither. It cannot free itself from the in- 
cumbrance that it inherits. The Idea of a 



94 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Man does not shine upon it from any ex- 
ternal Image. It cries for instruction, and 
none satisfies its wants. There is little 
genius in our school-rooms. Those who 
enter yearly upon the stage of life, bearing 
the impress of our choicest culture, and 
most watchful discipline, are often unwor- 
thy specimens of our nature. Holiness at- 
tends not their steps. Genius adorns not 
their brow. 

Many a parent among us — ^having lav- 
ished upon his child his best affections, and 
spared no pains which money and solici- 
tude could supply, to command the best 
influences within his reach — sees him re- 
turn, destitute of that high principle, and 
those simple aims, that alone ennoble hu- 
man nature, and satisfy the parental heart. 
Or, should the child return with his yoang 
simplicity and truth, yet how unarmed is 
his intellect with the quiver of genius, to 
achieve a worthy name, and bless his race. 
The Soul is spilt out in lust; buried in ap- 
petite ; or wasted in vulgar toils ; and re- 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 95 

treats, at last, ignobly from the scene of 
life's temptations ; despoiled of its inno- 
cence : bereft of its hopes, and sets in the 
dark night of disquietude, lost to the race. 

Yet not all depravity nor ignorance is to 
be laid at the door of our Institutions. The 
evil has two faces. It is deeper in its ori- 
gin. It springs from our low estimate of 
human nature, and consequent want of rev- 
erence and regard for it. It is to be di- 
vided between parents and institutions. 
The young but too often enter our institu- 
tions of learning, despoiled of their virtue, 
and are of course disabled from running an 
honorable intellectual career. Our system 
of nursery discipline is built on shallow or 
false principles ; the young repeat the vices 
and reproduce the opinions of parents ; and 
parents have little cause to complain. They 
cannot expect fruits of institutions, for 
which they have taken so httle pains to 
sow ^he seeds. They reap as they sow. 
Aiming at little they attain but little. They 



96 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

cast their own horoscope, and determine by 
their aim the fate of the coming generation. 
They are the organized Opportunity of 
their era. 

To work worthily, man must aspire 
worthil}^. His theory of human attain- 
ment must be lofty. It must ever be lift- 
ing him above the low plain of custom and 
convention, in which the senses confine 
him, into the high mount of vision, and of 
renovating ideas. To a divine 'nature, the 
sun ever rises over the mountains of hope, 
and brings promises on its wings ; nor does 
he linger around the dark and depressing 
valley of distrust and of fear. The mag- 
nificent bow of promise ever gilds his pur- 
pose, and he pursues his way steadily, and 
in faith to the end. For Faith is the soul 
of all improvement. It is the Will of an 
Idea. It is an Idea seeking to embody and 
reproduce itself It is the All-Proceeding 
Word going forth, as in the beginning of 
things, to incarnate itself, and become flesh 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 97 

and blood to the senses. Without this faith 
an Idea works no good. It is this which 
animates and quickens it into hfe. And 
this must come from hving men. 

And such Faith is the possession of all 
who apprehend Ideas. Such faith had 
JesuSj and this it was that em.powered him 
to do the mighty works of which we read. 
It was this which inspired his genius. And 
Genius alone can inspire others. To nurse 
the young spirit as it puts forth its pinions 
in the fair and hopeful morning of life, it 
must be placed under the kindly and sym- 
pathizing agency of Genius — heaven-in- 
spired and hallowed — or there is no cer- 
tainty that its aspirations will not die away 
in the routine of formal tuition, or spend 
themselves in the animal propensities that 
coexist with it. Teachers must be men of 
genius. They must be men inspired. The 
Divine Idea of a Man must have been un- 
iJ61(ied from their being, and be a living 
presence. Philosophers, and Sages, and 
9 



98 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Seers — the only real men — must come as 
of old, to the holy vocation of unfolding 
human nature. Socrates, and Plato, and 
the Diviner Jesus, must be raised up to us, 
to breathe their wisdom and will into the 
genius of our era, to recast our institutions, 
remould our manners, and regenerate our 
men. Philosophy and Religion, descend- 
ing from the regions of cloudy speculation, 
must thus become denizens of our common 
earth, known among us as friends, and ut- 
tering their saving truths through the 
mouths of our little ones. Thus shall our 
being be unfolded. Thus the Idea of a 
man be reinstated in our consciousness. 
Thus Jesus be honored among us. And 
thus shall Man grow up, as the tree of the 
primeval woods, luxuriant, vigorous — arm- 
ed at all points, to brave the winds and the 
storms of the finite and the mutable — 
bearing his Fruit in due season. 

To fulfil its end, Instruction must be an 
Inspiration. The true Teacher, like Jesus, 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 99 

must inspire in order to unfold. He must 
know that instruction is something more 
than mere impression on the understanding. 
He must feel it to be a kindling influence ; 
thatj in himself alone, is the quickening, 
informing energy ; that the life and growth 
of his charge pre-exist in him. He is to 
hallow and refine as he tempts forth the 
soul. He is to inform the understanding ; 
by chastening the appetites, allaying the 
passions, softening the affections, vivifying 
the imagination, illuminating the reason, 
giving pliancy and force to the will ; for 
a true understanding is the issue of these 
powers, working freely and in harmony 
with the Genius of the soul, conformed to 
the law of Duty. He is to put all the 
springs of Being in motion. And to do 
this, he must be the personation and exam- 
pier of what he would unfold in his charge. 
Wisdom, Truth, Holiness, must have pre- 
existence in him, or they will not appear 
in his pupils. These influence alone in the 
concrete. They must be made flesh and 



100 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

blood in hinij to reappear to the senses, and 
subordinate all to their own force ; and 
this too J without violating any Law, 
spiritual, intellectual, corporeal — but in 
obedience to the highest Agency, co-work- 
ing with God. under the melting force of 
Genius, thus employed, Mind shall become 
fluid, and he shall mould it into Types of 
Heavenlj^ Beauty. Its agency is that of 
mind leaping to meet mind: not of force 
acting on opposing force. The Soul is 
touched by the live coal of his lips. A 
kindling influence goes forth to inspire ; 
making the mind think ; the heart feel ; the 
pulse throb with his own. He arouses ev- 
ery faculty. He awakens the Godlike. 
He images the fair and full features of a 
Man. And thus doth he drive at will the 
drowsy Brute, that the Eternal hath yoked 
to the chariot of Life, to urge man across 
the Finite ! 

To work worthily in the ministry of In- 
struction, requires not only the highest 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 101 

Gifts, but that these should be refined by 
HoUness. This is the condition of spiritual 
and intellectual clearness. This alone un- 
folds GeniuSj and puts Nature and Life to 
their fit uses. ^^ If any man will know of 
the Doctrine, let him do the will of my 
Father," said Jesus ; and he, who does not 
yield this obedience, shall never shine forth 
in the true and full glory of his nature. 

Yet this truth seems to have been lost 
sight of in our measures of Human Culture. 
We incumber the body by the gluts of the 
appetites ; dim the senses by self-indul- 
gence ; abuse nature and life in all manner 
of ways, and yet dream of unfolding Genius 
amidst all these diverse agencies and influ- 
ences. We train Children amidst all these 
evils. We surround them by temptations, 
which stagger their feeble virtue, and they 
fall too easily into the snare which we have 
spread. Concupiscence defiles their func- 
tions ; blunts the edge of their faculties ; 
obstructs the passages of the soul to the 

outward, and blocks it up. The human 
9# 



102 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

body, the soul's implement for acting on 
Nature, in the ministry of life, is thus de- 
praved ; and the soul falls an easy prey to 
the Tempter. Self-indulgence too soon 
rings the knell of the spiritual life, as the 
omen of its interment in the flesh. It 
wastes the corporeal functions; mars the 
Divine Image in the human form ; estranges 
the aff"ections ; paralyzes the will ; clouds the 
intellect : dims the fire of genius ; seals 
conscience, and corrupts the whole being. 
Lusts entrench themselves in the Soul ; un- 
clean spirits and demons nestle therein. 
Self-subjection, self-sacrifice, self-renewal, 
are not made its habitual exercises, and it 
becomes the vassal of the Body. The Idea 
of Spirit dies out of the Consciousness ; and 
Man is shorn of his glories. Nature grows 
over him. He mistakes Images for Ideas, 
and thus becomxcs an Idolater. He deserts 
the Sanctuary of the Indwelling Spirit, and 
worships at the throne of the Outward. 

Our plans of influence, to be successful, 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 103 

must become more practical. We must be 
more faithful. We must deal less in abstrac- 
tions ; depend less on precepts and rules. 
W^e must fit the soul for duty by the prac- 
tice of duty. We must watch and enforce. 
Like unsleeping Providence, we must ac- 
company the young into the scenes of temp- 
tation and trial, and aid them in the need- 
ful hour. Duty must sally forth an attend- 
ing Presence into the work-day Avorld, and 
organize to itself a living body. It must 
learn the art of uses. It must incorporate 
itself with Nature. To its sentiments we 
must give a Heart. Its Ideas we mtist arm 
with Hands. For it ever longs to become 
flesh and blood. The Son of God delights 
to take the Son of Man as a co-mate, and 
to bring flesh and blood even to the very 
gates of the Spiritual Kingdom. It would 
make the word Flesh, that it shall be seen 
and handled and felt. 

The Culture, that is alone worthy of 
Man, and which unfolds his Being into the 



104 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

Image of its fulness, casts its agencies over 
all things. It uses Nature and Life as 
means for the Soul's growth and renewal. 
It never deserts its charge, but follows it 
into all the relations of Duty. At the table 
it seats itself, and fills the cup for the Soul ; 
caters for it ; decides when it has enough ; 
and heeds not the clamor of appetite and de- 
sire. It lifts the body from the drowsy couch ; 
opens the eyes upon the rising sun ; tempts 
it forth to breathe the invigorating air; 
plunges it into the purifying bath; and 
thus whets all its functions for the duties 
of the coming day. And when toil and 
amusement have brought weariness over 
it, and the drowsed senses claim rest and 
renewal, it remands it to the restoring 
couch again, to feed it on dreams. Nor 
does it desert the Soul in seasons of labor, 
of amusement, of study. To the place of 
occupation it attends it, guides the corporeal 
members with skill and faithfulness; 
prompts the mind to diligence ; the heart to 
gentleness and love ; directs to the virtuous 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 105 

associate ; the pure place of recreation ; the 
innocent pastime. It protects the eye from 
the foul image ; the vicious act ; the ear 
from the vulgar or profane word ; the hand 
from theft; the tongue from guile ; — urges 
to cheerfulness and purity ; to forbearance 
and meekness; to self-subjection and self- 
sacrifice ; order and decorum ; and points, 
amid all the relations of duty, to the Law of 
Temperance, of Genius, of Holiness, which 
God hath established in the depths of the 
Spirit, and guarded by the unsleeping sen- 
tinel of Conscience, from violation and de- 
filement. It renews the Soul day by day. 

Man's mission is to subdue Nature ; to 
hold dominion over his own Body ; and use 
both these, and the ministries of Life, for 
the growth, renewal, and perfection of his 
Being. As did Jesus, he must overcome 
the World, by passing through its tempta- 
tions, and vanquishing the Tempter. But 
before he shall attain this mastery he must 
apprehend himself. In his Nature is wrapt 



106 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

tip the problem of all Power reduced to a 
simple unity. The knowledge of his own 
being includes, in its endless circuit, the 
Alphabet of all else. It is a Universe, 
wherein all else is imaged. God — Nature 
— are the extremes, of which he is the mid- 
dle term, and through his Being flow these 
mighty Forces, if, perchance, he shall stay 
them as they pass over his Consciousness, 
apprehend their significance — ^their use — 
and then conforming his being to the one ; 
he shall again conform the other to him- 
self. 

Yet, the Divine Image in Man, is dim- 
med and reflects not the full and fair Image 
of the Godhead. We seek it in Jesus, yet 
sigh to behold it with our corporeal senses. 
And this privilege God vouchsafes to the 
pure and undefiled in heart ; for he sends 
it upon the earth in the form of the Child. 
Herein have we a Type of our nature yet 
despoiled of none of its glory. In flesh and 
blood he reveals his Presence to our senses, 
and pleads with us to worship and revere. 



SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 107 

Yet few there are who apprehend the sig- 
nificance of Divine Type. Childhood is yet 
a problem that we have scarcely studied. 
It has been and still is a mystery to us. Its 
pure and simple nature ; its faith and its 
hope, are all unknown to us. It stands 
friendless and alone, pleading in vain for 
sympathy and aid. And, though wronged 
and slighted, it still retains its trustingness, 
still does it cling to the Adult for renova- 
tion and light. — But thus shall it not be al- 
ways. It shall be apprehended. It shall 
not be a mystery and made to ojfFend. 
^' Light is springing up, and the day-spring 
from on high is again visiting us." And 
as in times sacred to our associations, the 
Star led the Wise Men to the Infant Jesus, 
to present their reverent gifts, and was, at 
once, both the herald and the pledge of the 
advent of the Son of God on the earth ; 
even so is the hour approaching, and it lin- 
gers not on its erra^id, when the Wise and 
the Gifted, shall again surround the cradles 



108 SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 

of the New Born Babe, and there proffer, 
as did the Magi, their gifts of reverence and 
of love to the Holiness that hath visited the 
earth, and shines forth with a celestial glory- 
around their heads ; — and these, pondering 
well, as did Mary, the Divine Significance, 
shall steal from it the Art — so long lost in 
our Consciousness — of unfolding its powers 
into the fulness of the God. 

And thus Man, repossessing his Idea, 
shall conform Nature to himself Institu- 
tions shall bear the fruits of his regenerate 
being. They shall flourish in vigor and 
beauty. They shall circulate his Genius 
through Nature and Life, and repeat the 
story of his renewal. 



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